Webmonkey and the official Google blog report that a new release of the Chrome web browser is currently being rolled out. Updates include faster 3d graphics and access to the new app store, which happens to have lots of great apps for web professionals. But what I’m really excited about is the new Chrome Instant feature.

In addition to having Google search results appear instantly while searching in the URL bar, users will be able to begin typing a domain name to have the most relevant website load automatically.

[Header Image: Robert Scoble, Othar introduces Google Instant, Sep 8, 2010 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution]

Direct Navigation Gets a Speed Boost

The future of direct navigation to your favorite websites is just one or two keystrokes. Users currently need to enable this new feature in Chrome’s Basic settings. (Highlighted below)

Once enabled, you’ll find the fast paced browsing and searching to be very useful. Navigate to your favorite websites instantly, without the aid of your Enter button. This feature is powered by browsing history and Google’s prediction technology.

Some may interpret this change as a shift away from domain name direct navigation, when in actuality it is a very welcome shortcut that utilizes the domain name system. Memorable brands could see a significant increase in website traffic as loyal customers now barely have to think to access websites.

Chrome Instant makes visiting a domain easier than a Google search again. And, of course, it’s easier than finding a Facebook page.

Your Domain As Your Brand

Web developers, entrepreneurs and small businesses owners should work towards using quality domain names. Domains which are concise and catchy, easy to remember, pronounce and spell will benefit from lots of valuable type-in traffic.

A recent study shared by eConsultancy found that just 3% of traffic to eCommerce websites comes from social media, while a staggering 46% comes from brand familiarity. The domain name is a valuable resource for any business and should be a centerpiece of branding efforts.

I believe Chrome Instant will be a popular new browser function and may become a default feature on Google Chrome and other browsers. How do you think Chrome Instant will play out? Do you enjoy the faster browsing experience?

Chrome Instant: Load Websites Automatically While Typing Domain Names DotSauce Magazine

In this article I will share some techniques and tips for properly formating and sharing your domain name. Your domain name can be a valuable marketing tool. Continue reading to see how.

[Image: Daniel Morris, Busy, October 21, 2006 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike]

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Marketers should make efforts to use good textual design and capitalization for readability when including their domain name in advertising materials.

An attractive font, typically sans-serif, should be used along with good character spacing and large size for readability.

The beginning of a URL (http://www.) should not be included in ad copy because it distracts from the domain name. It is better to have the keywords read first. The domain extension should prove enough for consumers to recognize a URL.

• Large, attractive font
• Remove http://www.
• Capitalize each word in the domain
• Make it a focal point, if not the center of attention

It is also important to practice the same techniques when marketing your website with Google AdWords and other text and link based advertising. There have been case studies (PDF) proving that generic domain names with relevant keywords receive more clicks.

Logo Design

If you are using your domain name as your brand then it should be represented well in your logo design. This is particularly important if you do not use a .com domain name, which is the most widely recognized and is often assumed.

I believe that businesses which display the full domain name within their logo design, such as Amazon.com and Diapers.com, have a great advantage in direct navigation traffic. That is those visitors who type the domain name directly into their browsers regularly.

Direct navigation traffic can come in from many sources such as business cards, banners, flyers, letterhead, and word of mouth. It is often undervalued because it is hard to track, but represents a lot of opportunity for new leads and repeat visits.

Twitter Profile

Every person on Twitter has the opportunity to display their full domain name alongside their biography. With the new site design, the characters of the URL are not restricted, but it may still be advisable to remove the www. portion of your URL so that your domain name can be read immediately.

This will also make sure that your domain can be seen clearly on all Twitter clients including mobile, which still restrict the character count of your website address.

A clearly visible domain name with relevant keywords will bring in more clicks on Twitter. This is particularly effective when following like-minded people. Your URL is included within the new follower email notice sent by Twitter.

Facebook Profile

On Facebook we can feature multiple website URLs within our profile info page, but I wouldn’t recommend going overboard. Too many choices can be a turn off. Only include your most important web properties. Your first link is likely the one that will receive the most clicks.

Did you know? You can also add a clickable link to the about box directly below your profile or fan page photo. Simply include http:// before your domain and it will automatically become a hyperlink. Unfortunately, the link text is still black and does not feature the typical underline. So, what I do is additionally write “Please visit my blog…” or “Click ->” for further instruction.

Web Copy

When sharing your link around the web, be it comments on blogs, forum posts, articles or blog rolls, you should first think about how you want your domain represented. One of the foundations of SEO is having targeted keywords within link anchor text. So, in some cases it may be best to leave out your domain extension in preference of your keyword phrase.

You should never use full URLs when writing web copy, unless that is the only way to place a link on a certain platform. Use HTML to create a link to your website using keywords, as in these examples:

• <a href=”http://www.dotsauce.com/”>DotSauce Domain News</a>
• <a href=”http://forum.dotsauce.com/”>Domain Name Questions</a>

Be sure to use a variety of anchor text keywords and phrases over time.

Sub-Domains

Your domain has infinite possibilities in both folders and sub-domains. You can control what is left of the dot.

One of the most important things to remember regarding sub-domains is that you should decide whether you will include the www or go without. Once you have chosen, stick with it and encourage others to use the same method for linking to you. You can then define your URL display preference at Google Webmaster Tools. Doing so avoids any chance of content being indexed multiple times.

Sub-domains should be as concise as possible, preferably using just one word. Adding unique areas of content and resources on sub-domains can strengthen your brand and reach on search engines.

URL Shortener

URL shortners are somewhat of a trend right now as many popular publications look to capitalize on the masses of traffic being driven by social status updates.

Instead of promoting the domain of the shortening service when links are shared you can instantly have your brand recognized and credited.

To create your own URL shortener you can use a WordPress plugin or subscribe to a service (Bit.ly Pro) to manage your URL shortener and stats.

Email Address

Would you rather promote GMail or your own business name? Not only is it professional to have your own domain as an email address, it’s also easy and virtually free if you have an active web hosting account.

I recommend setting up an email on your domain that forwards to your GMail address. You can then configure GMail to use your default reply-to address. This way your real GMail address will be hidden and secure. Your branded email address will appear seamlessly to those you email.

To do this in GMail, go to Settings (top right) > Accounts & Import > and click the “Send mail from another address” button.

Email Signature

This is some of the best free marketing your domain name will ever get and you may not be taking advantage of it. For email signatures, make sure to include the http:// portion of your URL so that all email clients will convert it to a hyperlink.

Below your salutation and name, type out your full URL and feel free to use proper capitalization of words for readability. You can additionally add a line or two of text describing your website or business.

In Summary

To sum up these techniques, when marketing your domain names you should strive to

• Be professional
• Be readable
• Be clickable
• Be proactive

Work on these points and your domain name will help to deliver more traffic to your website.

How do you market your domain name?

If you have any website marketing tips of your own to contribute, please leave a comment below. We would love to hear how you gain visitors or how you use your domain as your brand.

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider sharing this article if you found it useful.

How To Market Your Domain Name To Get More Visitors DotSauce Magazine

Today, SEOMoz is suggesting that browsing  video descriptions and comments for related data can be beneficial for SEO research.

While reading the text from YouTube video descriptions and comments, copy related terms and enter them into the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to discover their actual term popularity.

We can then use popular related keywords and phrases to write content that people are looking for.

Check out the interesting guide on SEOMoz.

YouTube as a Keyword Research Tool DotSauce Magazine

In a recent announcement about the AdWords Keyword Tool coming out of beta, Google has finally revealed information which explains the significant decrease in search volume data.

Domainers like to review Global and Local monthly search volume data for expired domain research, aftermarket valuations and more. It’s an excellent resource for getting a first impression of keyword popularity.

Many have been in a state of confusion as to why global monthly and local monthly search volume data rapidly dropped by tens of thousands or more in some cases.

The Google AdWords team explained:

Statistics in these columns are now based on Google.com search traffic only. Previously, they also included traffic from search partners.

Now, it’s not clear whether their search partners were powered by other engines or if they are referring to Google Custom Search implementations which display results on external websites.

It seems a shame to me to lose that extra search data. If it was indeed data from Google Custom Search setup on niche websites that was removed, they could now be significantly undervaluing keyword search volume.

This change is reported to come at the request of advertisers. Big AdWords bidders were likely not seeing the return expected from such high volume numbers. The new data should now accurately represent a potential for traffic from Google.com.

Google Explains Sudden Drop in Global and Local Monthly Search Volume Data DotSauce Magazine

Metaweb has built a smarter, more connected internet by classifying all persons, places and things under a unique ID they call an entity.

This video introduction does a good job explaining the concept and how Metaweb could bring great content to site owners.

I learned of all this at the Official Google blog today and am a little troubled by the tone of the announcement. I have lots of questions.

Will this optimistic outlook of Metaweb as a service to web developers change as they merge into Google?

Will these cool widgets ever see the light of your monitor?

Google has been increasingly adding content alongside search results in recent years. They have already taken over the traffic and attention of numerous industries and niches such as travel arrangements, business listings, definitions, product comparison and even the news.

Now Google hopes to enable a smarter search where people can go beyond text.

Looking for a college? You may search like this in the near future…

• [colleges on the west coast with tuition under $30,000]

What’s going on in San Jose tonight?

• [events in San Jose]

There is far reaching opportunity for Google to use Metaweb to provide great answers without a user ever leaving their domain. This is what worries me. How much content will they take for themselves and will websites suffer for it with dwindling traffic numbers?

Metaweb’s data is hosted on a separately branded community site called Freebase. I tried to sign up, but registrations are currently closed.

Google does mention that Freebase (all that data from Metaweb) will remain open to the public. So, you should definitely check it out and support the cause. There is also a wiki for Freebase developer tools.

A free and open database for the world’s knowledge sounds like a phenomenal resource for business and web development. I can imagine countless new applications connected to this data and the social web.

Update: The following video is an astounding Freebase search project called Parallax. It is a new way to explore data and integrate it simultaneously from multiple Metaweb data sources.

While I’m still playing the conspiracy theorist (it’s all this UFO buzz), I believe Freebase may cut into web traffic of some individuals and businesses. Google started something similar with Knol a few years ago; I’m not sure how well it’s doing now.

Popular destinations like WikiPedia, IMDB and who knows what else may soon have smart competition with a major home-field advantage.

Regardless of how it turns out, I respect Google for bringing innovative web ideas to fruition. I hope they continue to recognize their users are creating great content and personal answers that deserve to be found.

Google Breaks Into the Content Business in a Spectacular Way DotSauce Magazine

Many have questioned the accuracy of Compete and Alexa traffic rankings. Could social engagement data soon be viewed as more relevant metrics?

PostRank came on the scene in 2007 with a goal in mind of helping people find the best blogs by topic and to help publishers measure their influence and reach.

Today, PostRank is monitoring and tracking social engagement across all domain names in real-time. Data is gathered on where and when someone shares a post on any number of social networks or makes a comment on-site.

The PostRank Labs team are working on (among other things) a tool that will look very familiar to many of you.

We all love website comparison charts, but this is not simply an estimation of website traffic like you’re thinking.

See this PostRank Labs demonstration for a quick preview of the data.

I was surprised at the differences between on and off-site engagement when comparing websites and how that percentage affects the engagement points total.

PostRank Domain Industry Rankings

I have setup a “Domains” tag on PostRank and added a number of publications. Unfortunately, some blog feeds were not able to be discovered by PostRank. Feel free to add additional feeds if they are relevant.

Clicking a title will show individual posts and enable you to find those with the best social engagement performance.

Social Data, Coming Soon to an App Near You

The PostRank Data Services toolkit for developers has just been updated with a Domain Activity API. Developers may use the APIs to incorporate PostRank, FeedRank and Domain Activity metrics into their own applications.

If you’re a programmer, the PostRank APIs may provide a unique opportunity to develop applications or services related to social engagement. I have a few ideas for using the real-time domain activity analytics, please get in touch with me if you would like to hear them.

I have a feeling we will start to see specific metrics such as provided by PostRank become more prevalent and useful.

Keeping tabs on your PostRank domain activity can help you get motivated to start actively promoting your content on social networks. Find out what works and potentially discover new ways to engage your readers and keep them coming back for more.

New PostRank Domain API: Tracking Social Engagement (+Domain Industry Rankings) DotSauce Magazine

Tynt Insight technology is being used to track content sharing via copy & paste actions in a user’s browser. According to the company, an average of 6% of page views on the web result in some kind of user action that can be tracked by their technology.

In a recent rebuttal towards TechCrunch’s claim that 45% of all social sharing is done on Facebook, Tynt has shown clearly that this is not the case.

Email deserves the top spot for overall shares at 75%, Facebook accounts for 25%, blogs and forums (labeled “Other”) still account for a significant number of shares while Twitter is still growing with 1% of the social sharing action.

Tynt went on to provide a different and all-together more interesting break down of social sharing by showing how shares are performing in the chart above. Apparently Tynt Insight is tracking more than just copy/paste actions. This is valuable and definitely insightful click-through data!

Here are highlights I’ve observed containing some very interesting data revealed by Tynt:

• There are an estimated 1 trillion to 1.4 trillion page views on the web each month.
• Slightly over 2% of all page views result in sharing via copy & paste actions, totaling 20 billion shares per month.
• Sharing via built in share buttons (Digg this, Tweet this) account for only 400 million shares per month.
• Email is used for 70% of all social sharing and accounts for 48% of new site traffic.
• Blogs, forums and other mediums generate 36% of new site traffic despite accounting for only 4% of total shares.
• While 25% of all sharing is done on Facebook it only generates 10% of new site traffic.
• Digg generates 5% of new site traffic despite accounting for less than 1% of total shares.

What can we do to improve user experience and cater to the kind 2% of visitors who choose to share our content?

Website publications and blogs could definitely use more accessibility and unity with email sharing. We put an emphasis on social sharing and tend to leave email as a fall-back option when in fact it is being used the most.

Adding a prominent notice or automated form to share via email may do the trick and help tap into the prevalence of email sharing.

I’m sure improvements and new applications, website widgets, and browser addons for both email and social network sharing will be coming soon throughout 2010.

Tynt’s Insight software will automatically include a link back to the source page when text is copied from a website. I’m still a little dumbfounded that they are tracking copy and paste data, why didn’t someone think of this sooner?

I’m interested to see what content is being copied from my sites, how often, and how I can use that information to generate more site traffic. If this sounds good to you as well, check out Tynt Insight‘s free service and leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Surprising New Website Data Reveals Social Sharing and Traffic Trends DotSauce Magazine

The red toolbar you’re seeing at the bottom of the screen now, that’s Wibiya in action. Now loading faster and featuring a handful of new “apps” that can be easily added through a slick user dashboard.

You may have noticed the subtle, yet effective notification messages when visiting DotSauce previously (shown right, currently disabled) which I think is one of the best features of Wibiya toolbar. It provides an unobtrusive way to notify visitors to take action.

Admin Dashboard Features

I could go on at length about the many neat features of Wibiya, but I will spare you the time and just list them here.

• Change color scheme
• Drag and drop interface to arrange each item on toolbar
• Dashboard statistics showing visitor usage
• Suite of add-on applications

On-site Buttons Interact with Toolbar

New “website badges” (which I haven’t tried yet, but look very promising) enable you to place code on your site which interacts with your Wibiya toolbar. So, for example, you could place a “Tweet This” badge which launches your Twitter dashboard.

Excellent Suite of Applications

Who doesn’t love apps? Hopefully more innovative and useful apps will be able to be created by third partys. Here is a quick list of the apps currently available for Wibiya.

• Site Search
• Google Translate
• Latest Posts
• Random Posts
• RSS Subscribe
• Post Sharing Tool
• Live Notifications
• Photo Gallery
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Navigation Links
• Live chat room
• Real time visitors display
• Scroll to Top
• Flash Games

All of those applications translate to alot of value for your website! Here is an older screenshot of my statistics (the stats display has since been enhanced), just to show you how Wibiya is working for me.

Wibiya Works

I believe Wibiya is doing a phenomenal job reducing bounce rates, increasing on-site and social interactivity between a blog / website owner and their audience.

Not only has Wibiya developed the right applications for the job, but they are executing the applications themselves very effectively, reaching out to other companies to bundle features, providing community support and continually innovating!

All that being said, I’m sure you can guess that I highly recommend it! Give Wibiya.com a try on your website as soon as you can.

Wibiya Blog Toolbar Upgraded and Opened to Public DotSauce Magazine

Many search optimization professionals (and enthusiasts) are essentially freaking out and lamenting as if all their efforts to rank highly for certain keywords will be thwarted. In some cases, this may be true.

Here is a brief video introduction to personalized search by Google.

A Step Closer to Search Perfection

This is an innovative change for the general public to gain accurate results. I feel that legitimate business websites, well optimized blogs and organic content will begin to reap the benefits of personalized results soon as well.

Why will this be good? This search history data that Google is collecting is more powerful than we can readily imagine. They will use the nationwide collective data in the future to improve their algorithm, deliver further optimized results and put quality content at the top.

So, if you put in the hard work to deliver great content, network with your industry to gain authority links (which may now be more important) you will be rewarded by Google and indirectly by those who find their way to you through Google.

Another perk may be that spammers, keyword stuffers, obscure minisites or made for AdSense sites may become a thing of the past as the trickle of traffic they do get from Google grinds to a halt.

For more information on privacy issues, opting out and how Google is making sure to keep results diverse despite personalization, Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has published a nice writeup for further reading on the topic.

Turning It Off For Research Sake

Web developers, domainers, marketers, and SEO professionals may want to consider turning off personalization. Sacrificing your own customized search results to get a more accurate representation of keyword research and where your own sites rank.

Alternatively, you could use a third party service like Authority Labs to monitor your rankings on Google as well as Bing and Yahoo.

What are your thoughts? Will you be turning off personalized results? Comments are always open.

Google Personalized Search Results Now Live for Everyone DotSauce Magazine

There are two things we can assume about people who re-tweet links to resources and articles. First, they are interested in the subject of that article or resource. Second, they are engaging actively with their followers and sharing. My kinda people!

I have always been a fan of Bit.ly, even before Twitter decided to use them as the default link shortening service. Their click tracking analytics and clean interface have always appealed to me. In this guide we will be using the Bit.ly sidebar tool to find and follow new interesting people.

Step 1. Register an account with Bit.ly.

Once logged in you will be able to drag the sidebar tool button (shown right) to your browser toolbar.

Step 2. Find an article of interest to you.

Popular articles will work best as we’re looking to see who might have shared this article. Consider your favorite blogs’ best posts or the latest news from your topic of interest.

You can use sites like TweetMeme, TweetMixx or Favstar to find articles that have been re-tweeted alot. Now navigate to the article page.

Step 3. Activate the Bit.ly sidebar tool.

Click the link you just placed in your browser toolbar. The Bit.ly sidebar allows you to quickly re-tweet this article, see how many visits the article has received and last but not least you can see the Twitter conversation.

Step 4. Follow the Re-Tweets!

The “Conversations” area shows everyone who has re-tweeted the article in a nice chronological list.

You can scroll all the way to the bottom and see who first shared an article and as you move up the list you see how the re-tweets progressed.

Click a few Twitter profile names at a time while holding the Ctrl key or click with your mouse scroll-wheel to open them in a new tab.

You will likely find hundreds of new and interesting people to check out and follow on Twitter using this method.

These people like to share stuff, so if you have quality tweets there’s a good chance they may be re-tweeting YOU soon!

Speaking of re-tweets, you can click here to Tweet this article.

Be sure to follow @DotSauce for live updates on future articles.

How To: Find Hundreds of Interesting People On Twitter DotSauce Magazine

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen has just published a report on his latest research into the world of business on social networks. There are some amazing perspectives and insights to be gained.

Any business engaging users on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Linkedin can put this information to use immediately and surely start seeing positive results in a short amount of time.

I would like to go over a few quotes from Mr. Nielsen that I feel are the highlight take-aways from his study.

Business messages appear in a context that’s permeated by personal messages. This context sets the stage for use.

Here we learn that messages should be personable and casual and not so corporate. However, Nielsen points out that users prefer RSS feeds to be more business like.

Users listed too-frequent postings as their top annoyance with following companies and organizations.

This is quite self explanatory. I would recommend limiting your broadcast messages to just a handful per day.

It is also noted in the report that Facebook and Twitter are often used multiple times daily whereas Linkedin and MySpace are used less so.

Plan your next correspondence, but wait to execute until the right time.

Users recognize that corporate postings are commercial — rather than friendship-driven — they do resist overly aggressive selling.

This is why I don’t recommend selling or directly marketing anything within your personal timeline (on a regular basis anyway).

Set up a unique profile for your business and provide a passive introduction to your product or service. Users run from anything that looks like an advertisement.

Messages that received the highest scores had three things in common: they contained something of substance, were timely, and provided the kind of information that users expected.

Stay consistent with your followers’ areas of interest and stay up to date!  Your followers will appreciate and find value in your messages and may be inclined to re-tweet or recommend you.

Check out the rest of Nielsen’s study for more findings on business to user interaction within social networks and RSS feeds.

Study Sheds Light on Business to User Interaction on Social Networks DotSauce Magazine

Twitter Friendly Links – Yup, Your Own Short URL

Download Twitter Friendly Links or Visit Plugin Website

This is quite simply an in-house URL shortening service that creates links using your short post ID’s.  For example you can visit http://DotSauce.com/1632 to access this very post!

Twitter Friendly Links plugin can help you preserve and increase your domain name brand exposure on Twitter and give your shared links more credibility.

The only caveat is that you are sacrificing click analytics, though I’m sure the developer of this plugin already has that in mind.

Analytics360 by MailChimp – Bringing Google Analytics to WordPress

Download Analytics360 or Visit Plugin Website

To use all of Analytics360 options you are asked to register a free account with MailChimp,  a web based email marketing and newsletter management system, but you don’t necessarily have to use their service.

Analytics360 adds a feature to you WordPress admin that connects with Google Analytics to display traffic stats, top referrers and most viewed articles.

A really cool feature of Analytics360 is the orange dot marker next to each of your blog posts over time so you can visually see how your posts are performing!

Disqus Comment System – Revolutionizing Blog Comments

Download Disqus or Visit Plugin Website

The default WordPress comment system is severely dated! I tried the WordPress threaded comment system for awhile and while it is slightly better it still fell short. Disqus simply has alot of appealing features…

• Track your comments across all blogs
• Verified emails and avatar uploads
• Instantly connect with Twitter and Facebook
• Moderate comments via email or assign moderators
• Top commentators and recent comments widgets

I am extremely happy since installing Disqus. It was surprisingly easy to install as any WordPress plugin usually is. Large sites like TechCrunch and Mashable have adopted Disqus and I foresee it soon becoming the standard for blog comments.

WP Smush.it! – Better User Experience by Reducing Image File Sizes

Download WP Smush.it or Visit Plugin Website

I was ecstatic when I found this plugin, a plugin that actually shrinks your image files on the fly!  Most people should know how to use the “Save For Web” feature when working with images to keep file sizes down.

I found that Smush-It actually works better than PhotoShop for getting down to the smallest file size, especially with GIF and PNG files! Amazingly, no image quality is sacrificed.

You can even go in to your gallery and smush previously uploaded files!

Sexy Bookmarks – Making Social Sharing Fun

See Live Example Below!

Download Sexy Bookmarks or Visit Plugin Website

This plugin is quite literally beautiful! There are lots of social bookmarking plugins available for WordPress already, but this is by far the most appealing and unique set of bookmarking icons. In just a short time since installing I have noticed a few readers making use of my Sexy Bookmarks!

So yea, maybe you want to have unique looking icons and that’s cool, but I think it will actually benefit blogs on the whole because readers will be able to instantly recognize Sexy Bookmarks buttons and share blog posts.

These plugins rock, huh? Please share this post using my Sexy Bookmarks buttons…

5 Fresh WordPress Plugins Ready to Enhance Your Blog DotSauce Magazine

Risky Business

There are evident risks for trademark infringement when using .CM domains.

I encourage any decent sized company to take the initiative and pre-order their respective .CM domain to prevent any later headache.  I also strongly discourage anyone from attempting to profit from typo traffic on established .COM websites.

The typo traffic is likely not as much as you think on your average .CM name. There are more profitable ways to quickly develop online business on legitimate domain names.

I’m also not convinced that .CM is a viable brand option for anything but a company in Cameroon.

Traffic Machines?

On the other side of the table, there are countless .CM domains are generic in nature and can not be said to violate any trademarks. Could these be valuable resources for driving some targeted traffic to existing business?

Rick Latona is managing an auction currently of premium .CM domains that are generic in nature.  Domains such as Cars.cm, Loan.cm, Games.cm, etc. are available with reserves from $1000 to $20,000.

NameJet has gained exclusive rights to manage the sunrise registration / pre-orders for .CM domains.

So What’s Your Move?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Please respond to the poll and leave your comments below.

POLL: Will you pre-order or buy .CM domains? DotSauce Magazine

Blogging is one of the most beneficial things a business or individual can do to increase exposure to their product or service. Many even consider blogging essential for successful presence on social networks.

There are many ways you can enhance the effectiveness and exposure you can gain from blogging and the most important is optimizing your posts so they rank high on multiple search terms (SEO).

Popular keyword research company, Wordtracker, has recently released an excellent Firefox addon for bloggers called SEO Blogger.

While some bloggers use alternate keywords and phrases related to your post subject by simply pulling them from memory, the free SEO Blogger tool can provide real world search data to back you up.

Ken McGaffin, CMO at Wordtracker makes a great point in this comment about their new SEO Blogger tool…

“Bloggers often don’t take the time to do keyword research… they just want to get their story out there. Now, bloggers have instant access to relevant keywords…That’s sure to bring them extra traffic.”

SEO Blogger Keyword Suggestion Tool: How to Use It

Once installed, click the small Wordtracker icon in the lower right of your screen that looks like this…

The SEO Blogger tool opens in a sidebar panel in your browser (see screenshot) where you can enter any keyword or keyword phrase and then be presented with keyword suggestions ranked by popularity.

You are then able to select which keywords you would like to use in your blog post.

Your saved keywords will be shown in the lower half of the sidebar and you may continue to type in additional keywords in the upper half to be presented with more keyword suggestions.

One of the cool features of SEO Blogger is that as you write your post it tracks how many times each chosen keyword is used.

I might find myself using this tool outside of WordPress also for quick keyword suggestions, domain research, article ideas and other writings.

So, give SEO Blogger a try and let us know what you think of this free tool by commenting below.

SEO Blogger: Free Keyword Suggestion Tool for Firefox DotSauce Magazine

Just what does Authority Labs really do?

The service allows you to monitor your domain names for search engine rankings of specific keywords or search terms of your choice.

Once you set a domain name and define the search terms you want to track, Authority Labs goes to work monitoring your ranking for those terms. There are options to be updated via email alerts and you can view charts to track your performance over time.

Monitor One Website for Free

You can give this service a go for free through a promotional free trial account. You can monitor one domain and 10 search terms.  Simply visit the Authority Labs website to sign up.

There is also a Personal Plan which is $9 per month to monitor 3 domains, though the beauty of this service may lie in the fact that it’s scalable, allowing paying customers to monitor many many more websites with ease.

Why Bother?

Monitoring search rankings can beneficial for numerous reasons. For one, it can help you visualize the progress you are making, especially if you are just getting started!

Keeping tabs on those rankings can help you discover where your traffic is coming from and try to repeat that success.

Do you track your search rankings? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Monitor Google, Yahoo and Bing Rankings for Free with Authority Labs DotSauce Magazine

The presentation is titled, “Straight from Google: What You Need to Know” and provides excellent advice and insight from Google on optimizing WordPress for search engine ranking.

Please browse through the slides and read the highlights below the presentation. Update: Video is here to accompany slide, enjoy!

Matt has also provided a link to download the presentation in PowerPoint format.

Highlight Slides from the Presentation

• Slide #12: Use WordPress to get a head start!
• Slide #13: Basic but essential WordPress Plugins.
• Slide #21: SEO Tip – Choosing content keywords.
• Slides #22-#23: Ask yourself, “What will my visitors type?”
• Slide #26: Tweak your titles, URLs and content.
• Slide #27: Use keywords as categories and use dashes between words.
• Slide #29: Be passionate, write often, but don’t over do it.
• Slide #34: Be useful, creative and informative.
• Slides #36-#39: Use Google’s free Webmaster Tools to optimize.
• Slide #46: Save the Internet! Support net neutrality.
• Slide #48: WordPress Security – Block access to wp-admin with htaccess.

Straight from Google: What You Need to Know

As you can see, this presentation was a wealth of information, thanks Matt!

Pass it along to your fellow bloggers and developers!

If you have any questions or additions to the topic of SEO and blogging, the comments area is always open.

SEO Advice of the Year! Google’s Matt Cutts on Successful Blogging DotSauce Magazine

Michael Wong, SEO and Business blogger, published a fantastic editorial today featuring 8 ordinary people achieving extraordinary success.

These mostly young entrepreneurs, software developers, affiliate marketers and bloggers made their millions by developing businesses online.

However, there is one man that stands out who didn’t do anything like the others. He invested in domain names!

Yun Ye Sold His Domain Portfolio for $154 Million

The highlighted feature in Michael Wong’s editorial is Yun Ye, a domainer who got started in 1998.

Just four years ago he agreed to the sale of his 100,000 domain names. The portfolio was acquired by Marchex, now a leader in local search advertising.

Michael Wong and this 2006 DNJournal Cover Story report additional details that Yun Ye’s portfolio earned more than $20 million a year in parking revenue, with $19 million in profits. Marchex paid 8.6 times annual earnings, based on figures provided in SEC documents.

Build Your Online Empire Today

It’s inspiring and gratifying to hear about these life-changing stories of online business success. It’s good to see that even small online business can pay off big if you put your heart into it.

Yes, they had somewhat of a head start in their respective industries.  Revenue models change, Domainers obviously can’t rely solely on PPC or parking revenue anymore.

Development tools, software and social networks are evolving and innovating over time.  New technologies have been developed that make it easier to build and maintain online business.

There is virtually infinite opportunity still today to achieve extraordinary success online, and many will in the coming years.

Invest in domain names now and get your own head start!

Domainer Legened Yun Ye and Other Multi-Million Dollar Success Stories DotSauce Magazine

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about my experience using the powerful Hummingbird Twitter automation software and how it allowed me to get over 5000 targeted followers on Twitter. Since writing that review I have almost doubled that number at 9,000+ followers.

Those numbers are just for one account!  I have several other online businesses with Twitter accounts which have many thousands of targeted followers each, all thanks to this powerful software.

Continue reading below for a great Hummingbird discount code and how you can easily achieve this success on Twitter.

What Does Hummingbird Do?

Hundreds of people are using Hummingbird to take Twitter to the next level.

This relatively simple PC software allows you to login to as many Twitter accounts as you like, search for people in your area of interest and then automatically follow people while you take a nap, walk your dog or work on something else!

Once you have followed all the people you can handle, wait awhile for those people to follow you back and then clean up your list by automatically unfollowing those people who didn’t seem interested.

This process would otherwise take hours of your valuable time each day!

Benefits of Massive Followers

• My website traffic has increased dramatically.
• I have built new relationships with individuals and businesses.
• I have introduced numerous people to my industry.
• Able to drive traffic to any resource, product or blog at any time.
• I get tons of Re-Tweets.
• Listed high in Twitter directories.
• I launched a website and gained hundreds of sign ups.

…and the list goes on!  There is no reason you shouldn’t pursue more followers on Twitter.

HummingBird Discount Code

Unfortunately, there are currently no Hummingbird discount codes. Bookmark this post and check back for updates!

However, the Hummingbird software can now be yours for just $4.97 per month by using this link to get the limited time offer.

The powerful and innovative new Hummingbird 2 Pro software is now available for $197!

Many people have told me (and I agree) that Hummingbird can pay for itself in just the first week. I highly recommend you give it a try and start leveraging the awesome power of the Twitter crowd!

Hummingbird Discount Coupon Code: Get 15% Off the Most Powerful Twitter Tool DotSauce Magazine

Update: You can now get 15% OFF! Check out this Hummingbird Discount Code.

I feel as if our industry is closed off from the public, like we are talking in a small circle when we should be spreading the good word of Domaining to a much wider audience. It may be like this for many industries.

I believe, through Twitter, that we can massively expand our industry and increase awareness of the true value and profitability of Domaining, all while making more money and driving traffic to our websites.

We can reach out and network with SEO and search marketers, web developers, freelancers, graphic designers, branding experts and many more people who should be involved with Domaining!

I currently have gained over 5000 targeted followers on Twitter, largely in part to using advanced automation software called Hummingbird.

If used properly (see Tips below), it is completely within the Twitter terms of service and it is an extremely effective way to market yourself to literally thousands of people interested in what you’re doing.

If we all can reach out to these new people and get them reading domain news, watching domain auctions, reading our tips, etc., then the industry as a whole will benefit greatly!

Just What Does Hummingbird Do?

Hummingbird is a powerful, yet simple desktop software program that automates the task of following large groups of targeted Twitter users.

You’ve probably found a list of people you like before and understand how long it takes and how boring it is to click “Follow” so many times.

This premium software is currently only $197 and is working brilliantly.

I have come across some information on official forums that a new version with enhanced features is coming soon and the price will increase significantly.  Current owners will get this update for free.

You can purchase and download Hummingbird here.  I recommend you buy it now before the price goes up with the new update, but even then it’s well worth it and you can earn your investment back fast.

Tips On Getting Started With Hummingbird

Many people are using Hummingbird to amass broad groups of tens of thousands followers. I don’t recommend this method, as it can get your profile suspended and you simply won’t connect with your followers.

What you want to do first is find authority profiles and follow their followers, it’s that simple!  This is the basis for success on Twitter and gaining thousands of followers in a relatively short time.

You can even start with my 5000+ followers (of course not all at once)! My followers are in some way interested in web development, domain names, SEO, marketing and/or web design. If you Tweet about those things, there is a good chance they will follow you back!

Simply navigate to http://twitter.com/DotSauce, click my followers number and Hummingbird can go to work for you.

If you’re in another industry, search for people in your niche and you will soon find plenty of targeted people to follow.

Wait a few days between each follow session to give people time to check you out, then you can have Hummingbird un-follow those who didn’t follow you back. The software even stores a list of every person you un-follow so that you don’t bother them again.

If you have any questions about the Hummingbird software please let me know, would be happy to help get you started.

Take Twitter to the Next Level with Hummingbird DotSauce Magazine

Mini site development has the potential to increase revenue and pay-per-click (PPC) conversions on domain names with traffic, especially those with natural type-in visitors.

Mini sites also allow you freedoms and features that current parking companies simply can’t and won’t provide you. If you have a domain with strong keywords there is also the possibility of ranking high in Google and increasing traffic significantly in due time.

Ron Jackson at DNJournal has recently published the DNJournal March Cover Story featuring an introduction to the rise of mini site development lately and list of other mini site development companies.

Each company is unique and has different features, models and methods to their developing madness.

Some are automated like WhyPark or Parking Revolution which places more interaction and content control with the user, others are on the pricey side but provide a hands on experience with true custom content, graphic and promotional work.

DN Media has announced today the launch of MiniSites.com. The new company provides mini site development services to domainers, which is as mentioned above, a hot trend in recent years for those seeking an alternative to falling revenue from traditional PPC parking companies.

MiniSites.com has three different mini site development packages to choose from which include features and services such as the following…

• Dedicated Project Manager
• Unique Content Creation
• Custom Text Logo Design
• Attractive Graphic Header Design
• Flexible Monetization Options
• Targeted Keyword Research
• Search Engine Optimization
• Easily Add Your Own Content Post-Launch
• Free Hosting for as Long as You Own the Domain

Looks like a great all around package for having someone develop a quick mini site for your domain name.  The base price is set at $120, but they do have discounts for bulk orders.

Surprisingly, the service price nearly triples from $120 to $350 when you want to add on advanced link building and advanced monetization packages.

No details are to be found on the company site regarding hosting or a user control panel. But, I think they are on the right track and I am sure more information will show up soon on MiniSites.com as they push through the new launch.

Would love to hear your comments about mini site development or MiniSites.com, please leave one below!

Mini Site Development Services: Creating Small Websites Based on Big Ideas DotSauce Magazine

phpLD can help you build traffic and search rankings over time, while providing a great service to users and the potential to earn revenue through paid links and advertisements.

phpLD 3.4 has recently been released for download.  The cost of this script is $30, quite a good deal.  Featured in this update are many enhancements to the admin interface which improve management for sorting and editing submissions and categories.

A much needed improvement has been included which allows you to delete submissions as spam, which in-turn provides a quick way to delete and ban those devious spam link submitters.

The new version also comes with a new phpLD template called “Chrome” shown below:

While link directories do not gain search engine popularity as quickly as they did a few years ago, they are still a great way to build a niche site or compliment an existing community website.

phpLD has previously been featured by DotSauce in our list of 10 Outstanding & Affordable Scripts for Developing Domains.

If you have purchased before, check out phpLD 3.4 and if you haven’t, consider investing $30 in this great piece of software.

Don’t forget to submit your domaining related website to the DotSauce Domaining Directory!

PHPLinkDirectory 3.4 Update – Excellent New Admin Features DotSauce Magazine

Here are all the details you need to know regarding bidding and submitting your domain names to these auctions.

Rick Latona Auctions Schedule

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. and Rick Latona Auctions have partnered once again to bring you another online auction event. Submit your names to Rick Latona Auctions today to be considered for the Featured Live Auction and for the Extended Online Auction at TRAFFIC Silicon Valley. Rick Latona Auctions is the premiere aftermarket company in the domain space.

Submit Your Domain Names at RickLatona.com

We will be bringing the 2008 World Livestock Auctioneer, Matt Lowery, to keep the emotions high and the hammers dropping!

Moniker Auctions Schedule

Sell your domains through the leader in premium auctions. Moniker has proven time and again that it is the leader in premium auctions. Submit your domains to Moniker today for the Premium Live and Extended Online Auctions at TRAFFIC Silicon Valley.

Act early to ensure your domains get full consideration and receive the maximum marketing exposure and personal sales team outreach before the conference.

Submit Your Domains For Review at Moniker.com

TRAFFIC Silicon Valley Live Domain Auctions DotSauce Magazine

Looking at it from the other perspective (as a domainer and a business person) you should always be on the hunt for ways to make more money from the traffic your domains already receive.

In my TRAFFIC Down Under presentation I listed a number of ways to help make more money from the same traffic source.  But today, I come to you with a new way (or at least a new spin on old ideas) to make more money with your same ol’ traffic.

ComWired.com is a Geo Directional DNS service that allows a domainer to split up the traffic coming to a domain in order to parse it out by region.  What exactly does that mean?

Well, let’s take a step back and explore why traffic splitting is even useful.

About two years ago I owned a “tube” domain name that was getting about 200 unique visitors a day.  Half of the traffic was from Latin America and those visitors were looking for a youtube.com type clone, while half of the traffic was from the United States and those visitors were looking for manufacturing tubes.  No matter how I optimized the domain name I was never able to make full use of the traffic.  This meant that I could never truly make as much money as was possible since I couldn’t parse the traffic out.

That has all changed now.  With ComWired we are able to identify the location (down to a 30 mile radius) of the traffic and then route it to different destinations based off of your predefined rules.

This means you can “park” your domain name with ComWired and then setup where you want your traffic to go based on its country of origin.  Using that same “tube” domain as an example, you could:

• Send all American Traffic and All European Traffic to NameDrive.com
• Send all Latin American Traffic to Parked.com
• Send all African and Asian Traffic to TrafficZ.com
• Send all remaining traffic to any other place you want.

Then, for whatever reason, if you wanted to change your traffic destinations, you just login to ComWired and redirect the traffic based on your preferences.

To make matters even easier you can just do logical grouping based on GEO location.  This would entail directing all of your traffic to ComWired.com and then redirecting all of your traffic of certain types to singular parking companies.  Basically put, you could segregate all traffic based on geo and then send it to whatever parking company you feel monetizes it the best.

So, this service helps stretch your traffic a bit further while giving you much more control on how your traffic is distributed.  In the end, it means more money for you.

Currently our system is in beta mode so we are not charging anything.  It’s 100% free for right now and there is no credit card required in order to signup.  That means there is absolutely no downside and no risk.

Have fun making more money with the same traffic!

Happy Domaining!

This is a guest post by Sean Stafford, founder of Domain Graduate, Site Graduate and newly launched ComWired DNS service.  You can connect with Sean on Facebook here.

ComWired: Earning More Money From the Same Domain Traffic DotSauce Magazine

I am especially excited about their newest tool, Linkscape, which is proclaimed to be a game changer. SEOMoz Pro members get 20 in-depth Linkscape reports on any website.

Well here is a copy of the announcement… check it out:

As a special thank you for your support, here’s a gift that will (in my humble opinion) have an enormous, positive impact on your SEO performance in 2009: a full month of SEOmoz’s PRO membership for only $1.

There’s only one itsy bitsy teeny catch: because we offer one-on-one Q+A with the SEOmoz staff, we’ve had to limit the number of places available at the discounted rate. So while we’re sending this offer out to 122,451 SEOmoz members, it’s only valid for the first 5,000 people who respond. Don’t delay – we’ll be promoting our once-in-a-lifetime $1 offer on the blog on Monday, February 9th. So act now, before the riotous, can’t-be-tamed masses hear of this.

To claim your first month of PRO membership for just $1, visit www.seomoz.org/trypro and enter SUCCESS09 as your promo code. The SEOmoz coupon code expires February 13th (that’s next Friday), but remember, space is limited.

I hope you have a prosperous 2009!

Thanks,
Rand

P.S. Here’s the link again, just in case you missed it :-) To claim your full month of PRO member services for just $1, visit http://www.seomoz.org/trypro (using SUCCESS09 in the promo code!)

Already an SEOMoz Pro member? Going to give the $1 trial a go? Please leave a comment about your experience with their services.

SEOMoz Promo Code: Try SEOMoz PRO For Just a Dollar! DotSauce Magazine

Great New Feature Updates

• Widget creation system, that allows you to create sidebar widgets for all parked domains. This is extremely useful for creating additional advertising spots, sponsoring content, sharing links or even creating simple blogrolls.
  • I used this to create a blogroll on one of my sites and already sold a link for $20 a month!
• Now there are three types of customization includes: Header, Meta and Footer. Header includes will be added right after the <body> tag, Meta includes will be added between the <head> tags and Footer includes will be added right before the closing </body> tag.
  • This was my suggestion, thanks for adding header includes!  I can now create a network bar and link all my Parking Rev sites together!
• Individual banner includes are now possible. This means that, instead of using the global banner includes, one of your domains can use specific includes.
  • One of the most requested features, now live!  Create unique AdSense code for each domain name.
• If you feel that the default content being displayed by Parking Revolution isn’t very relevant to your domain subject, you can display content imported from an RSS feed.
• Create new custom pages for any of your domain mini-sites.

Bugs Be Gone

• Google Analytics integration now works perfectly
• Performance tweaks on the entire system
• Better cache for parked domains (means they will load faster)
• Optimizations and minor bug fixes in the RSS Merging tool
• Optimizations and minor bug fixes in the Rewrite Content tool

Sign Up!  Parking Revolution is amazingly only $15 per month to develop up to 100 of your domain names!  I can almost guarantee it will be one of the best investments you make!  Visit ParkingRevolution.com now.

In Other News…

Parking Revolution has launched a Forum, their own Blog and you can now connect with Parking Revolution on Twitter!

Send them your comments, suggestions and feature requests!

Video Demonstration

Check out my video demonstration where I do a short screencast of the admin panel, showing you a glimpse behind-the-scenes how easy it is to develop a domain with Parking Revolution.

(Click image to launch video in new window)

Sign up for Parking Revolution now and develop 100 domains for just $15!

Parking Revolution Updated With Great Monetization and Unique Content Features DotSauce Magazine

Ron Jackson at DNJournal has just broke the news that Ask.com has acquired Sendori, a direct navigation company.  The terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Mr. Jackson reports “The marketplace he (CEO & Co-Founder Ofer Ronen) envisioned went live on August 1, 2006 and now, just a little over two years later they become part of (Barry) Diller’s IAC internet empire where Sendori will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary.”

Why This Matters to Domainers

Sendori.com is able to send highly targetted visitors to an advertiser’s websites by taping into a very valueable resource we call generic domain names.  People type them into their URL bar everyday looking for products and information.

While this breed of domain name is extremely rare they are still out there on the auction blocks at domain conferences, in the hands of private investors and often times expiring daily.   I personally don’t own any generic .COM domains (one of my greatest ambitions) so this doesn’t direct affect me directly, but I know many people who do.

Even if you don’t own these valuable .com names like me, this is still great news for the industry!  The acquisition of Sendori by Ask.com affirms the value of a great .COM domain name.  Hopefully direct navigation will catch on this year and the domain industry will get some of the positive recognition we need and deserve!

Ask.com Making the Right Moves

DotSauce covered the April 2007 launch of Ask.com’s Sponsored Listings program, a PPC keyword advertising platform.  They have since been serving well over 34 million unique users per month via their network of sites, which include Match.com, Ticketmaster, and and Evite.

Domain Name News reports that “Ask.com is an IAC (NASDAQ:IACI) company and has made other moves in acquiring premium reference sites (and domains) under the Reference.com umbrella like Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com.”

Would love to hear your thoughts on direct navigation domains and this deal by Ask.com, please leave a comment below.

Ask.com Acquires Sendori Direct Navigation: Domain Names Take the Spotlight in Advertising DotSauce Magazine

Continue reading for full coverage and some live example sites!

An Inside Look at Parking Revolution

ParkingRevolution.com is truly living up to their name.  CubeVisions Software, the makers of SteadyNiche, are now blurring the line between domain parking and advanced web development with Parking Revolution.

There are several great features I can’t wait to share.. so I am going to walk you through the best ones right now.

• Fully Web Based – This advanced development software can be accessed from any computer online.  Each and every domain that you develop is hosted on Parking Revolution servers at no additional cost!
• Intuitive Control Panels -User friendly administration means anyone can easily find their way around both the customer control panel and their own personal parking and development control panel.

• Unparalleled Development Features - Parking Revolution is bringing amazing site development features to the table the likes of which our industry has never seen before. Here is just a small sample of some of those great features…
  • Word Replacement
  • RSS Feed Control
  • Unique Page Creation
  • Portfolio-Wide Widgets
  • Header & Footer Customization
  • CSS Design Control
  • Google Analytics
• First Class Support – The team at Parking Revolution has been enthusiastically interested in my feedback.  Using their simple support ticket system my one issue was corrected in just a few minutes.
• Multiple Money Makers – Paste your own Google AdSense code directly into your developed pages or update it easily throughout your entire portfolio.  eBay affiliates can plug in their campaign ID’s and start serving up relevant products and earning extra cash.  It’s also just as easy to add direct advertising or affiliate programs!
• Amazing Site Content – Your domains will no longer feel “parked” at all.  With news and articles being updated constantly, built in Job Boards, YouTube Videos, Flickr photo streams, eBay Products, contact forms, and much more.

And The Best Feature of All…

It’s just $15 per month to develop up to 100 domain names fast!

See Parking Revolution in Action!

Here are some sites I setup in just a few minutes all together!  Using default Parking Revolution options all I had to do was input keywords and a description for a fully developed, feature rich website!  Take a minute to browse one or more to see Parking Revolution in action!

Example Sites…

• Daily Poker Tip – Your source for insider poker tips and tricks.
• Junior Surfing – Latest news and videos on the world of Junior Surfing.
• GPS Explore – Top reviews, news and more on GPS Devices.
• Celeb Meter – Celebrity news, videos, photos and gossip.
• Immediate Legal Help – Articles, blogs, and more for legal help needs.

Sign Up!  Parking Revolution is amazingly only $15 per month to develop up to 100 of your domain names!  I can almost guarantee it will be one of the best investments you make!  Visit ParkingRevolution.com now.

What do you think?  I’d love to hear your feedback on Parking Revolution.  Please leave a comment below.

A True Domain Parking Revolution Has Come! DotSauce Magazine

Will AdSense for Domains be worth your time? Let’s take a look at some of the benefits and shortcomings of Google AdSense for Domains.

What are the benefits of AdSense for Domains?

• Higher Conversions - There have been case studies and numerous reports on conversion rates for simple domain parking pages. Direct navigation (typing a domain into an address bar) has proven to be highly targeted traffic.
• Possibly Higher Revenue - This may turn out to be the opposite as Andrew of DNW points out here, Google has contracts for the advertising feeds it provides to parking companies. It is within Google’s power to “dial back” or reduce revenue shares for both parking companies and new AdSense for Domains users.

What is AdSense for Domains lacking?

• Search Indexing – Obviously Google is not going to index any domain enrolled in this program, a major drawback to anyone interested in driving more traffic and increasing site value.
• Domain Sales Contact – As far as I am aware there is no option to notify visitors that your domain may be for sale or how to contact you, please correct me if I am wrong.
• Unique Landing Page Design - Google is good at simplicity.  Pages may convert but won’t look good.
• Unique Keyword Rich Content – It is impossible to add any custom content whatsoever to your domains.
• Alternate Revenue – There will be no option to include affiliate links, products or leads of any kind.
• Customization – No real way to fix any of the above.

These are huge features that benefit domainers by increasing the short and long term value of your domain name properties.

Google’s AdSense for Domains is simply boring domain parking for the general public repackaged and sold direct from the provider. They are taking a step backwards in the evolution of domain parking.

Don’t worry about activating your AdSense for Domains account, it will probably just disappoint and waste your time. However, I must admit I will be interested to hear about initial conversion rates and revenue earnings per click.

What’s a Better Alternative?

Soon I will be announcing an amazing new product/service for domainers that will allow you to almost instantly develop full mini-sites with unique content and multiple revenue streams including Google AdSense direct from Google! There are many other great features I can’t wait to share. I am currently in beta testing and will have a full review completed when the product officially goes live.

Update: The wait is over!  Parking Revolution has just been announced.

What are your thoughts on Google AdSense for Domains versus automated mini-sites or more advanced domain parking?  Please comment.

Why AdSense for Domains is a Step in the Wrong Direction DotSauce Magazine

Coming Soon! This Site Under Construction

Generic Under Construction Page

Domain name and website owners generally had a message like this displayed to let random visitors know they should bookmark and come back soon. This is still used for some projects today, but rarely for any length of time.  You may also see a newsletter subscription.

This Domain Is For Sale

“This Domain is For Sale” Landing Page

We’ve all seen them, a simple text message and email link letting you know this domain name is for sale. The original domainers first form of domain sales advertising.  This may still be effective today, but less so because most domainers go straight for WHOIS data and then maybe directly to a site.

This Domain Has Been Reserved

Sample Reserved Domain Page (GoDaddy)

Domain registrars caught on to all the massively untapped traffic resource of their customers unused domains. Now you see them quite often, “This Domain Parked Free at GoDaddy.” Some may consider profiting from your customers domains to be a devious practice, but the owner simply needs to take control and direct the nameservers.

Pay Per Click Sponsored Links

Example Pay-Per-Click Page (Parked)

With the launch of Google AdSense and other advertising networks, domain owners became “publishers” by displaying relevant paid sponsors on their unused domain names. There has been some controversy concerning the value of these advertising spots on domain names, and recent reports that revenue from PPC domain parking is declining greatly.

Custom Content Mini-Sites

Custom Mini-site by AEIOU

Many new website services allow you to add unique content to your “parked” pages. This is intended to provide SEO value and the ultimate goal is to get your parked domains listed on search engines which was previously unheard of.  Others buy articles or hire freelance writers to dish out unique content.

RSS Feeds Automated Content

Full Featured RSS Powered Content

With the advent of RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication), content from all over the web can be embedded and updated automatically on any website. Using simple scripts and software domain owners are able to display relevant news and articles which could lead to more traffic.

The Future is Bright…

The future of domain parking is blurring the line between a simple landing page and a full blown website. It will not be long before a domain owner can instantly create fully developed websites with automated content, user interaction, automated product affiliates, photo galleries, videos, article archives and more.

The Evolution of Domain Parking and Mini Sites DotSauce Magazine

They have agreed to pay Johns an additional $2.5 million if the site performs well over the next 12 months.

This sale is indeed confirmed by an official press release from Bankrate, Inc. (Nasdaq: RATE). Better yet, Johns answers some great interview questions about the sale in an article found on WebProNews here.

This is quite an inspiring story for all of us bloggers and web developers.  By working hard at developing quality consistent content and driving traffic for just 2 years this guy is set for life.  Congratulations Johns!

Alexa.com statistics for Bankaholic are quite impressive.  Currently sitting at an excellent ranking of 41,904 which means it is getting alot of traffic daily.  Being in the banking niche, I am sure Bankaholic benefits well from that traffic by referring visitors to affiliated savings accounts, credit card offers, and through top-dollar AdSense revenue.

22 Year Old Sells His 2 Year Old Blog For $15 Million DotSauce Magazine